Wallace R. Benson

Infobox Person
name = Wallace Robert Benson


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1916|12|3
birth_place = Eaton, Weld County, Colorado, USA
death_date = death date and age|2008|10|6|1916|12|3
death_place = Sheridan, Wyoming, USA
residence=Cheyenne, Laramie County, Wyoming (1954-2006)
religion=Lutheran
occupation=State government employee|alma mater=Colorado State University
spouse = Marion E. Benson (married 1947-her death in 2007)
children= Mary Ann Benson Lance
Ross Benson
footnotes=Captured at Anzio, Italy in 1943, Benson was held prisoner of war by the German Army for two years during World War II.

Wallace Robert Benson (December 3, 1916—October 6, 2008), known as Wally Benson, was during World War II a American prisoner of war in Italy. Conscripted into the United States Army in 1941, Benson was captured in 1943 by the German Army at Anzio. He was held prisoner until 1945, when he was freed by invading Russian troops.Wallace R. Benson obituary, "Wyoming Tribune-Eagle", October 11, 2008:http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2008/10/11/obituaries/01obit_10-11-08.txt]

Benson was one of four children born to Oscar and Jenny Benson in Eaton in Weld County in northern Colorado. He was reared on a farm west of Greeley, also in Weld County. He graduated in 1935 from Greeley High School. On March 1, 1947, he married his wife Marion E. Benson (December 21, 1919—January 21, 2007), originally of Tacoma, Washington. [Social Security Death Index:http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi?lastname=BENSON&firstname=Marion&stat=a&start=61] . Benson graduated in 1952 from Colorado State University at Fort Collins, then known as Colorado A&M. He was employed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the Wyoming Highway Department from 1954 until 1980, having headed the photogrammetry department at the agency until his retirement.

He and his wife were members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Cheyenne. They had relocated in 2006 to Sheridan, the seat of Sheridan County in northern Wyoming. He was survived by a daughter, Mary Ann Lance of Sheridan; a son, Ross Benson of Fort Worth, Texas, and five grandchildren. ["Sheridan Press", October 10, 2008:http://www.thesheridanpress.com/newobituary.htm]

References